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Published on: 6/5/2003
Last Visited: 7/2/2006
Margaret McClatchey honored for 25 years
June 5, 2003
Margaret McClatchey, who just completed her 25th year of teaching and directing drama at Shawnee Mission North High School, isn't accustomed to seeing her own name in lights.
But there it is, flickering across a sign at one of the busiest intersections in Johnson County along with details about a reception in McClatchey's honor this Saturday.
Granted, it's only U.S. Bank's time-and-temperature sign at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Antioch.But even that kind of exposure is enough to make McClatchey blush.Not ready to take her final bow at North, she prefaced an interview this week by saying she would rather see the accolades being heaped on her transferred to the teachers who are retiring from the Shawnee Mission school district this year.
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But, according to Donna Godfrey, it was McClatchey who raised the bar for theater throughout the Shawnee Mission school district through her penchant for bringing professional-caliber productions, sets, acting and preparation to the high school stage.
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During the 1995-96 school year, for instance, McClatchey brought in real Marines to drill the student actors for a production of "A Few Good Men," which she directed.
McClatchey that year also directed "Little Shop of Horrors," which she recalls as one of her greatest directing challenges because it is a large-cast musical.
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But Mrs. Godfrey, whose son, Nick, starred as Seymour in the production, said McClatchey has a knack for inspiring her drama students to greatness, regardless of whether their production roles place them on the stage, in the sound booth or at the ticket counter.
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"But they still benefit every day of their lives from the many things Margaret taught them.Margaret and Maureen both have helped so many kids feel good about themselves.
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For her efforts, McClatchey has earned several honors, including the 1986 Outstanding Educator Award from the Association of Kansas Theaters and the prestigious 2001 Kansas Master Teacher award from Emporia State University.
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"Besides the obvious theatrical skills one would expect a drama teacher might instill in her students, Mrs. McClatchey taught me poise, self-confidence, management skills, ethics, marketing, diplomacy, public speaking, economics, teamwork, budgeting, fund-raising, sales, leadership and how to appear completely calm and collected in the most terrifying situations."
Ironically, McClatchey said, only a few of the student actors and actresses she has directed have gone on to professional stage careers.
"The direction of our program is not to train professional actors," she said."That's a horrible business all of us discourage students from going into.It's so competitive that most people are out of work most of the time."
So why study drama in high school?
"It's the confidence, the poise, the skill to think on your feet," McClatchey said."It's the history of dramatic literature that you learn.It's the empathy of walking in somebody else's shoes, the tolerance."
And don't forget the discipline.
"You absolutely have to follow through," McClatchey tells her student actors and stage hands, "because the show will not be canceled.That is the absolute of insults.The audience is there.They've bought a ticket.You will make it happen."
A meticulous planner and demanding taskmaster, McClatchey was influenced to enter teaching by her mother, who taught Greek and Latin.Her interest in drama, she said, was revealed to her one day in - of all places - a high school history classroom in upstate New York.
Though her family had roots in Nebraska, McClatchey's great-grandfather lost his farm there and moved his family to New York during the Depression."It was like 'The Grapes of Wrath' only they went the opposite direction," McClatchey said.McClatchey was raised in Middleport, N.Y., where she landed a role as Mae Peterson in her high school's production of "Bye, Bye, Birdie."But it wasn't until she gave a speech on the Nuremberg Trials in senior history class that she realized the thrill of giving a commanding performance.
"I'd just seen 'The Nuremberg Trials,' which was a very popular movie in 1963, so I was very passionate about the topic," McClatchey recalled."I went into class and basically just retold the movie plot in this very dramatic way, and everyone was quite astounded by it.It was probably my first true glory moment in the classroom, and I thought, 'This is neat; I want to do this.'"
In 1967, McClatchey earned her degree in speech and drama from Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, which might seem an odd place for a New York girl to hone her dramatic skills if you didn't know the history.
Two daughters of McClatchey's great-grandfather had stayed behind in Elwood, Neb., after the farm was lost, she explained, and one of them married a banker who became very rich and hated by buying vast amounts of land, much of which proved to be oil-laden, that farmers had lost in foreclosure.
After the banker died, McClatchey's great-aunt decided to give his millions away.A devout Methodist, she gave large contributions to Nebraska Wesleyan, and she offered to pay McClatchey's tuition if she attended that university.
There, McClatchey played the leading female roles in "Mad Woman of Chaillot" and "The Man Who Came to Dinner."
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The McClatcheys then moved to this area, and Margaret began her drama-teaching career at DeSoto High School.
After four years, the McClatcheys adopted Christopher, their first of two adopted children, and Margaret took a break from teaching.
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McClatchey, in addition to teaching, directed seven performances last school year, including the fall and spring plays and three Advanced Repertory Theater productions.For one performance, "Bless Cricket, Crest Toothpaste and Tommy Tune," she worked with a student actor with Down syndrome and totally rewrote the original script, which was written for middle-school actors.
Despite the often frenetic nature of preparations, North's productions generally come off without any major hitches.But McClatchey does have a favorite blooper story.
"That would be when the chandelier in 'Amadeus' caught fire," she recalled."On opening night, the air conditioning was blowing right on the chandelier, and the candles were burning fast.
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"It's about Vietnam nurses, and they're telling about their experiences," McClatchey recalled.
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Again crediting her longtime directing partner, McClatchey noted that Davis had been responsible for an amazing set for that performance.
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A wall made from 12 sheets of four-by-eight Plexiglas looked like camouflage during the play, McClatchey recalled, but was backlit at the uplifting end of the performance to reveal hundreds of fallen soldiers' names that students had affixed to the Plexiglas.
"We always joke that together we're a whole teacher," McClatchey laughed.
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